But she still worried for me, cared for me.Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come looking for me on Xenoxx.I held that knowledge close, cupped it in my palms like it was a dying ember and vowed to protect it in case it sparked once again.
She looked away, and Smitha, the other member of her style team, whispered something in her ear.Nera nodded and strode toward the stage with her head held high and ignoring everything in my general direction.
She moved like fire in that strapless dress, burning up her surroundings with the way the fabric clung to her curves and revealed her golden skin.I longed to trace the path of the dress across her generous cleavage with my tongue, tease the hem higher up her long legs.
Heat spread over my lap and gathered in my groin, making me shift uncomfortably in my hoverseat.What I wouldn’t give to touch her, kiss her, grind myself into her one last time.
She’d ruined me in the best way possible for any other female.All I wanted was her.She was it for me.The One.If she decided I wasn’t enough, then no one else would ever compare to her.
Miekil, who’d been unusually quiet since we’d boarded the luxury ship, leaned in.“You’re drooling.”
“Fuxx off.”
He shrugged and crossed his arms.“She doesn’t hate you, you know.”
“I know.”
But that somehow made it worse.If she didn’t hate me, if she still loved me but didn’t want to have anything to do with me anyway… That might just kill me.
Pete came bounding in with his usual exuberant energy and clapped his hands loudly.“All right, so we’re running late, as is our usual these days.Whew, firefighting sure takes a toll.”
Miekil leaned forward and drilled him with a glare.“Pretty sure actual firefighters don’t take off their shirts and throw it on the fire to put it out and then smear ashes all over their pecs, Pete.”
Pete rolled his eyes.“You were high on pee.You don’t know what happened.”
Sal, who sat on the other side of Miekil, threw up his hands.“What the fuck happened down there while the rest of us were here doing Pete’s shitty scavenger hunt?”
Pete clutched his ash-smeared chest and gasped.“Shitty?I’ll have you know that I worked for five whole minutes hiding the two heart-shaped thingies.”
A female crewmember raised her hand.“Um, that was me who hid them.”
“Oh.Right.I forgot.”Pete waved that fact away like it didn’t matter.“Anyway, we need big energy for the show.The editors said that on the last segment, most of you looked sad.Maybe bored.Honestly, most of you have resting bitch face.No offense.”He pointed at me and Miekil, who’d already opened his mouth to protest.“So bring the thunder this time, the dinosaurs, and the ticking time bombs.Whatever you’ve got.”
“Oh, my guacamole spoon,” Nera declared randomly, holding it up.
Everyone chuckled, including me.Where had she been hiding that?And wasn’t that the spoon we’d used for tacos earlier this afternoon?I laughed even harder.My beautiful star was always unpredictable.
“Sure.Bring the guacamole spoon too.”While looking at her sideways, Pete scratched the back of his head.“Everybody ready?Good.Great.Because”—he did a little twirl with his arms outstretched—“it’s showtime, baby!”
“And action,” a crewmember shouted.
The camera drones closed in on Pete.
“Hello, lovely audience, how good of you to see me again.It’s time to find out which of our lucky contestants have succeeded in this epic, ship-wide scavenger hunt.The goal was to find two heart-shaped things to win prizes, so the question I’m dying to know the answer to is who found what and where?”
Nobody said a word.
Pete’s body went limp, and he flung his head back with his eyes half closed like a child whose last nerve had caught fire.“Seriously?No one found anything?You hadsixhours.”
A few contestants grimaced or ducked down in their seats.
June shrugged one shoulder.“We were doing…other things?”
“To be fair, Pete, the clue you gave us was a tad vague,” Nera pointed out.“Anything can be heart-shaped if you squint at it hard enough, or pound on it with your guacamole spoon.In fact, the stage itself is heart shaped.The two butt cheeks of the heart, if you will, are hidden behind the wall of lights and red roses at our backs.”
Suddenly, Miekil dumped something into my lap.A plump, juicy-looking strawberry in the form of a perfect heart.
He lifted his arm and pointed at the top of my head.“Heart-shaped strawberry, right here.He said he found it on the fruit tray outside the dressing rooms.Said he thought it was fake because it was so perfect.”He met my confused stare with raised eyebrows.“He told meallabout it.”
